What Works

SCHOOLS
WITHOUT
DRUGS

United States Department of Education
William J. Bennett, Secretary
1986

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

August 4, 1986

Drug and alcohol abuse touches all Americans in one form or another, but it is our children who are most vulnerable to its influence. As parents and teachers, we need to educate ourselves about the dangers of drugs so that we can then teach our children. And we must go further still by convincing them that drugs are morally wrong.

Now, as more and more individuals and groups are speaking out, young people are finding it easier to say no to drugs. Encouraged by a growing public outcry and their own strength of conviction, students are forming peer support groups in opposition to drug use. It has been encouraging to see how willingly young people take healthy attitudes and ideas to heart when they are exposed to an environment that fosters those values.

Outside the home, the school is the most influential environment for our children. This means that schools must protect children from the presence of drugs, and nurture values that help them reject drugs.

Schools Without Drugs provides the kind of practical knowledge parents, educators, students and communities can use to keep their schools drug-free. Only if our schools are free from drugs can we protect our children and insure that they can get on with the enterprise of learning.

INTRODUCTION 

"It is a sad and sobering reality that trying drugs is no longer the exception among high school students. It is the norm."

—California Attorney General John Van De Kemp Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1986

When 13- to 18-year-olds were asked to name the biggest problems facing young people today, drugs led their list. The proportion of teens with this perception has risen steadily in recent years. No other issue approaches this level of concern.

Four out of five teens believe current laws against both the sale and the use of drugs (including marijuana) are not strict enough.

—The Gallup Youth Surveys, 1985 and 1986

"Policy is useless without action! Drugs do not have to be tolerated on our school campuses. Policy to that effect is almost universally on the books. Drugs remain on campus because consistent, equitable and committed enforcement is lacking."

—Bill Rudolph, Principal, Northside High School, Atlanta, Georgia
Testimony submitted to the U.S. Senate Committee on Special Investigations, July 1984

"… We have a right to be protected from drugs."

—Cicely Senior, a seventh-grader,
McFarland Junior High, Washington, D.C.

William J. Bennett
Secretary of Education

The foremost responsibility of any society is to nurture and protect its children. In America today, the most serious threat to the health and well-being of our children is drug use.

For the past year and a half, I have had the privilege of teaching our children in the classrooms of this country. I have met some outstanding teachers and administrators and many wonderful children. I have taken time during these visits to discuss the problem of drug use with educators and with police officers working in drug enforcement across the country. Their experience confirms the information reported in major national studies: drug use by children is at alarming levels. Use of some of the most harmful drugs is increasing. Even more troubling is the fact that children are using drugs at younger ages. Students today identify drugs as a major problem among their schoolmates as early as the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades.

Drug use impairs memory, alertness, and achievement. Drugs erode the capacity of students to perform in school, to think and act responsibly. The consequences of using drugs can last a lifetime. The student who cannot read at age 8 can, with effort, be taught at 9. But when a student clouds his mind with drugs, he may become a lifelong casualty. Research tells us that students who use marijuana regularly are twice as likely as their classmates to average D's and F's, and we know that drop-outs are twice as likely to be frequent drug users as graduates.

In addition, drug use disrupts the entire school. When drug use and drug dealing are rampant—when many students often do not show up for class and teachers cannot control them when they do—education throughout the school suffers.

Drug use is found among students in the city and country, among the rich, the poor, and the middle class. Many schools have yet to implement effective drug enforcement measures. In some schools, drug deals at lunch are common. In others, intruders regularly enter the building to sell drugs to students. Even schools with strict drug policies on paper do not always enforce them effectively.

Schools Without Drugs provides a practical synthesis of the most reliable and significant findings available on drug use by school-age youth. It tells how extensive drug use is and how dangerous it is. It tells how drug use starts, how it progresses, and how it can be identified. Most important, it tells how it can be stopped. It recommends strategies—and describes particular communities—that have succeeded in beating drugs. It concludes with a list of resources and organizations that parents, students, and educators can turn to for help.

This book is designed to be used by parents, teachers, principals, religious and community leaders, and all other adults—and students—who want to know what works in drug use prevention. It emphasizes concrete and practical information. An earlier book, a summary of research findings on teaching and learning called What Works, has already proved useful to parents, teachers, and administrators. I hope this book will be as useful to the American people.

This book focuses on preventing drug use. It should be emphasized that the term drug use, as contained in the recommendations in the book, includes the use of alcohol by children. Alcohol is an illegal drug for minors and should be treated as such. This book does not discuss techniques for treating drug users. Treatment usually requires professional help; treatment services are included in the resources section at the end of the book. But the purpose of the book is to help prevent drug use in the first place.

The information in this book is based on the research of drug prevention experts, and on interviews with parent organizations and school officials working in drug prevention in all 50 States and the District of Columbia. Although this volume is a product of the U.S. Department of Education, I am grateful for the assistance the Department received from groups and individuals across the country. It was not possible to include all the information we gathered, but I wish to thank the many groups that offered their help.

No one can be a good citizen alone, as Plato tells us. No one is going to solve our drug problem alone, either. But when parents, schools, and communities pull together, drugs can be stopped. Drugs have been beaten in schools like Northside High School in Atlanta, profiled in this book. Preventing drug experimentation is the key. It requires drug education starting in the first grades of elementary school. It requires clear policies against drug use and consistent enforcement of those policies. And it